John Berendt biography

John Berendt

John Berendt Biography

The son of two writers, John Berendt grew up in Syracuse, New York. He
earned a B.A. in English from Harvard University, where he worked on the staff of The
Harvard Lampoon. After graduating in 1961, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in
publishing. Berendt has written for David Frost and Dick Cavett, was editor of New York
magazine from 1977 to 1979, and wrote a monthly column for Esquire from 1982 to
1994.

Berendt first traveled to Savannah in the early 1980s. Over the ensuing
eight years his visits became more frequent and extended, until he was spending more time
in Savannah than in New York.

Part of the appeal, Berendt says, lay in the city's penchant for morbid gossip.

Since the publication and unprecedented success of Midnight in the Garden of Good and
Evil, Berendt has become a Savannah celebrity and was even presented with the key to the
city.

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Interview

John Berendt describes the stylistic links between Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and his more recent book, The City of Falling Angels, and the aspects of Venice he most enjoys after living there on and off for nine years.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels
are
both multi-list bestsellers and widely acclaimed books. Have you been surprised
by their success? What do you think attracts people to your work?

My best guess is that what appeals to readers most in both books are the
characters. Time magazine said I had become "a state-of-the-art weirdo magnet."
What they meant was that the people I write about tend to be very strange. They
are, in fact, eccentrics. I love eccentrics. I see them as artists. Their
masterpieces are their own lives.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil marked your style of nonfiction as
unique and groundbreaking. Now, The City of Falling Angels brings Venice alive
for readers the way Midnight did for Savannah, Georgia. What do you think the
major hallmarks of your writing style are?

I write in the form of what has been called, the New Journalism, or Narrative
Nonfiction, or even Literary Nonfiction. Simply put, I write true stories in the
style of short stories and novels. I use the literary techniques of fiction
writers: extended dialogue, detailed descriptions, the imposition of a narrative
structure with action moving from scene to ...

Readalikes

All the books below are recommended as readalikes for John Berendt but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose readalikes

Dan Baum has been a staff writer for The New Yorker, as well as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is the author of Gun Guys: A Road Trip,Nine ... (more)

Howard Blum is the author of, the national bestsellers Wanted!, The Gold of Exodus, and Gangland. Currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, Blum was also a reporter at the New York Times, where he won numerous ...
(more)

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